Top 10 Nano & Micro LGBTQIA+ Influencers on Instagram

We talk about influencers having a niche or specialty quite a lot, simply because it is what makes them unique and a draw to work with. In this article, we are focusing on influencers who are openly LGBTQIA+, and use their Instagram profiles as platforms to either (1) educate the public about LGBTQIA+ issues, (2) share their experiences and lived realities as an LGBTQIA+ identifying person, or (3) live unapologetically in a world that tries to fit people into binaries and boxes. What is extra great is that they are up-and-coming influencers who have so much more room to grow.

In looking through each profile I was touched by how involved each one of them is in their community, and how strongly they feel about issues that others tend to overlook. Here we are proud to present to you the Top 10 LGBTQIA+ Influencers, sorted according to the number of followers.

Munroe’s got many skills up her sleeve. She is the founder of @goddessplatform, which is a social media platform dedicated to spreading important social and political messages. The page also hosts guests from different walks of life for takeovers, so that audiences can interact and ask them questions.

If that isn’t impressive enough already, Munroe is also a UK Changemaker at UN Women UK, and an LGBTQIA+ Editor at Dazed Beauty. What a Queen 👑

Her Top Performing post this year is an AV projection of the message “REPEAT AFTER US: TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN” at the Ministry of Justice in the UK.

As an outspoken Trans Ally, this is very much in line with Munroe’s stance and the content that she posts on her feed. Some of her most used hashtags include #metoo, #timesup, #IWD2020 etc. which shows that she is on board with intersectionality — always a good thing.

Her main audiences come from the US and the UK, as seen from the chart below.

Next is Bunny Michael who is a green-haired musician, artist, and writer. Their feed mostly consists of conversations between themself and ‘higher self’, which are meant to rationalise difficult thoughts. They also often include themself (either sketched or for real) in their ‘memes’, like so:

This is their Top Performing Post of 2020, which got them a 10.4% Engagement Rate — more than three times the average for micro influencers in the US and twice their average. This is not surprising considering how well they have established themselves — apart from a published book of memes, Bunny Michael also does college visits.

Bunny Michael also speaks to a relatively older audience. More than 50% of their audience is aged between 25-45 years old, which is much in line with the data that shows how mature audiences prefer Instagram while Gen Zs have taken to TikTok.

MM (as she is more intimately known to her followers), is one of my favourite queer content creators on Instagram. A cursory look at her Instagram highlights will reveal just how many resources she makes available to people — including but not limited to dating, self-care, sex, mental health, ethical porn, STDs, discovering your sexuality, yeast infections, genital care. She talks about things that a lot of people gloss over, and that is what makes her such a gem.

Quite a significant majority of her followers are female, which makes sense since her account gained traction some years ago when she openly talked about her yeast infection (very common amongst women) and some home remedies.

Her Top Performing post this year is a picture of MM and her first girlfriend – Kellie! Apart from an abundance of Kellie content, followers can also expect Ask Me Anything Mondays and collabs with other queer influencers on MM’s page.

Text reads: Queer people anywhere are responsible for queer people everywhere.

And that’s on Why Adam Eli Is Hard Not To Love. Adam focuses on a different facet of influencing, which is being firm about sharing messages and raising awareness. His feed might not be the most aesthetic, but that’s really because he’s always sharing important content (no time for filters here!) with lengthy captions that start and encourage conversation.

#everygayhasaninstabody is his piece on body positivity amongst gay men, #thenewqueerconscience is both the title of his book as well as a move towards actively making queer spaces, kind, friendly and warm. #marchagainstantisemitism is what it is is — a call to action for the systemic upheaval of racism towards Jews in America.

Henri-June identifies as a non-binary trans masc individual, and is a sex blogger and LGBTQ+ educator based in Montréal. They are wonderfully open about a great number of things including surgery, transitioning, body dysphoria, STI testing, mental health, and so on.

One of their Top Performing posts is this collaboration with @period.aisle:

I love this because they address body dysphoria struggles that trans men who still get their period undergo. They talk about packers and how to use one on your period, which is a common struggle amongst trans folk.

Their Top Performing hashtags on Instagram are #trans and #topsurgery, which makes sense since they market themselves as an educational platform about trans issues. What is lovely about Henri-June is that they personalise every lesson and experience.

This post performed at an 18.4% Engagement Rate, which is more than 6 times the average engagement for both nano and micro influencers in the US. Impressively, it is not too far off from their usual average engagement rate, which is 16.73%. Nadi is an influencer who knows how to give the people what they want.

85% of their audience is local which is typical for a nano influencer. It is for this reason that brands who are focused on local campaigns/engagement tend to work with smaller influencers — they are better able to hit niche KPIs.

My favourite thing about Nadi is their highlights, which they use as a way to engage with their audience in a more candid, unfiltered way.

The ‘ME’ highlight, for example, contains all sorts of cute selfies of her in various places while ‘Hippie Homos’ is her dabble into natural forms of medication.

*This next influencer doesn’t name themselves in their bio, but was identified as Knives on Molly-Margaret’s Instagram.

Knives is a queer mental health advocate with Borderline Personality Disorder, who recently did a very interesting segment on Dating with BPD. As an artist, they use writing and visual art to bring awareness to mental health & LGBTQIA+ issues in simple ways.

For example, here they feature self-designed gender-affirming apparel. Based on their Top Performing and most commonly used hashtags, we can see how important certain issues are to them and how they use their platforms as a means to start important conversations.

Clark and Henri-June share a similar profile as trans men who are queer educators. Clark is also open about his surgery + transition, and even has them as dates in his bio so that followers can follow along with his journey a little easier.

His Top Performing post this year is a beautiful picture of him that segues into information about how to include trans men in queer spaces — environments that they have historically been left out of. It got an 18% Engagement Rate, which is 6 times higher than the national average and more than double his own average.

Last but not the least is Juliet who is a cis-femme lesbian. Here is her Top Performing post of the year which got a 23% Engagement Rate — more than 7 times higher than the national average for nano influencers.

A quick scroll through her Instagram account will reveal that she has a passion for photography, and she uses it to shed light on issues that are close to her heart. A fun thing to note is that she actually plays in the same band as Nadi!